Cancer Control and Population Sciences Home
Types of Cancer Statistics:
Where can I find Cancer Incidence Statistics?
A cancer incidence rate is the number of new cancers of a specific site/type occurring in a specified population during a year, usually expressed as the number of cancers per 100,000 population at risk. That is,
Incidence rate = (New cancers / Population) × 100,000
The numerator of the incidence rate is the number of new cancers; the denominator is the size of the population. The number of new cancers may include multiple primary cancers occurring in one patient. The primary site reported is the site of origin and not the metastatic site. In general, the incidence rate would not include recurrences. The population used depends on the rate to be calculated. For cancer sites that occur in only one sex, the sex-specific population (e.g., females for cervical cancer) is used.
An age-adjusted rate is a weighted average of the age-specific rates, where the weights are the proportions of persons in the corresponding age groups of a standard population. The potential confounding effect of age is reduced when comparing age-adjusted rates computed using the same standard population.
Reports and Monographs
Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1975-2009
provides an update on the trends in cancer incidence and death rates in the United States.
SEER Cancer Statistics Review, 1975-2009 includes tables showing Delay Adjusted Incidence (PDF) and Incidence by Race/Ethnicity (PDF) as well as rates by sex, age, and year of diagnosis for major cancers.
US Cancer Statistics, 1999-2007 Incidence & Mortality provides the most comprehensive federal data available to date on state-specific cancer incidence rates.
Cancer Incidence in Four Middle Eastern Countries (Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, and Jordan) presents information about cancer incidence for populations of the four countries for the period 1996-2001, and compares the findings with those from the US SEER Program.
New Malignancies Among Cancer Survivors: SEER Cancer Registries, 1973-2000 reports on the risk of new malignancies that have arisen among more than 2 million SEER cancer survivors for the period 1973 to 2000. Risks of subsequent cancers are evaluated for more than 50 adult and 18 childhood tumors, by gender, age at diagnosis of the initial cancer, and time since diagnosis, as well as the initial treatment and histologic type of certain cancers.
Cancer Epidemiology in Older Adolescents and Young Adults 15 to 29 Years of Age presents detailed information about cancer incidence and outcomes in adolescents and young adults. It was developed to gather population-based incidence, mortality, and survival data specific to cancers that occur in this population, along with epidemiological data and risk factors for the development of age-specific cancers
US Predicted Cancer Incidence, 1999: Complete Maps by County and State from Spatial Projection Models uses a spatial projection model that predicts the number of cases in each county based on the sociodemographic and lifestyle profile for that county.
SEER Statistical Publications provide cancer incidence, mortality, and survival data on relevant topics such as socioeconomic variations prostate cancer, racial/ethnic patterns of cancer, and childhood cancers.
Research Tools for Incidence Statistics
Methods & Software for Cancer Incidence provides an overview of incidence rates and software tools for calculating incidence statistics.
Cancer Stat Fact Sheets are a collection of statistical summaries for a number of common cancer types. They were developed to provide a quick overview of frequently-requested cancer statistics.
FastStats is an interactive tool to access key SEER and US cancer statistics by age, sex, and race.
State Cancer Profiles is a comprehensive system enabling the investigation of cancer trends at the national, state, and county level.
Cancer Query Systems: SEER Incidence Statistics is a Web-based program that allows you to select statistics by defining various parameters.
